


8 Hours

by combustiblelemon



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Alternate Universe - Non-Magical, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-01-04
Updated: 2015-01-04
Packaged: 2018-03-05 08:47:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,093
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3113543
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/combustiblelemon/pseuds/combustiblelemon
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sirius Black doesn't like flying or other people's kids, but on an 8 hour flight, he manages to make a new friend.</p>
            </blockquote>





	8 Hours

**Author's Note:**

  * For [wigglecat](https://archiveofourown.org/users/wigglecat/gifts).



It wasn't that Sirius didn't like kids. He just didn't have the patience for them. No... that was a lie. He mostly didn't like kids that much, with the exception of his dearest godson, Harry. But Harry was James and Lily's kid, so he was obviously the best, most well behaved child on the entire planet as far as Sirius was concerned. Other children were noisy and sticky and made him nervous, which is why he was a bit concerned when he found himself seated to a little boy about Harry's age on an eight hour flight. 

The boy seemed quiet enough, though, sitting through the safety instructions and takeoff without fussing. If anything, his father seemed more anxious than he did. The man had his eyes closed and was holding his fist to his mouth while bouncing his leg. It was making Sirius nervous, but there wasn't anything he could do about it. The in-flight movie was some boring rom-com that had come out the previous year, but Sirius had loaded his iPad with enough movies and shows to last the whole flight. Since there was a kid next to him, he didn't want to watch anything he wouldn't watch in front of Harry, so he set it up to watch 101 Dalmatians. 

About halfway through the movie, Sirius felt a small tug on his sleeve. He didn't think much of it, assuming that the kid had accidentally pulled on his shirt while shifting positions, until he felt a much more insistent tugging. He paused the movie and glanced over, pulling out his right earbud to hear. The little boy was looking up at him, nervously chewing on his lower lip. He turned sharply to look back at his father who, at some point in the last 40 minutes, had fallen asleep, before turning back to Sirius.

"Um… what are you watching?" he asked shyly, looking over at the screen. Sirius wondered how long the kid had been working up the nerve to say something. Had he been watching without sound the whole time?

"101 Dalmatians. The good one, not the scary Glenn Close one." 

"What's a Glenn Close? Can I watch too?" He looked like he wanted to ask a ton of other questions, but Sirius was busy putting his earbud back in. The kid looked heartbroken until Sirius pulled the left one out and handed it to him, sliding the position marker of the movie back to the beginning as he turned the screen a little so the kid could see better. 

The little boy happily wiggled his feet a little as the movie started again, sitting with his hands folded on his lap. He didn't make too much noise, reacting every now and then to what was happening, but staying more or less still throughout the whole thing. When the movie ended, Sirius started Wreck It Ralph, letting the boy watch it with him too.

By the time the second movie ended, the snack cart was coming by. Sirius put his iPad away as the flight attendants offered them something to drink. The little boy politely asked for a glass of apple juice, thanking the flight attendant as she handed him the drink and a packet of Cadbury Mini Animals. Sirius asked for a Coke since it didn't seem right to ask for a beer in front of a kid. He left the biscuits on the tray as he had his drink, glancing over at the sleeping man sitting in the aisle seat.

"Hey kid, should we wake your dad?" 

The boy tried to shake his head without putting his cup down. When he started to spill his juice, he rested the cup on Sirius' tray table and wiped his mouth with the back of his sleeve. "Daddy doesn't like flying. If you're not going to eat those, can I have them?" he asked, pointing at the packet on the tray. 

Sirius didn't know whether to laugh or be irritated by this tiny little person who was already laying claim to his biscuits. He shook his head, reaching for the packet and handing them to the boy. "What's your name, kid?"

"Teddy Lupin. What's yours?" Teddy looked delighted by the snack he'd been given, clutching it with both hands as he grinned widely at Sirius. 

"Sirius Black." 

"Thank you, Mr. Black!" Teddy said earnestly, reaching down to pick up a bright red rucksack to store his treat for later. Once the biscuits were safe in his bag, he tucked it under the seat in front of him and settled back in his seat, looking expectantly at Sirius. 

"Another movie?" Sirius asked, biting his lip a little to keep from laughing. Teddy nodded happily, reaching for his juice cup so that Sirius could get his bag again. When Sirius pulled his bag onto his lap, Teddy caught a glimpse of what was in it.

"You got crayons!" He said, pointing and wiggling his finger at the box. Sirius hadn't realized that Harry (or more likely, James) had put a box of crayons and a coloring book into his bag when he wasn't looking. He pulled those out instead of his iPad and lowered Teddy's tray table, putting the book onto it and handing him the crayons. Teddy put his empty cup down, flipped through the book and picked out a few pages he wanted to color, carefully ripping the pages out along their perforated edges before handing the book back to Sirius. 

Teddy was not very good at coloring in the lines, but he looked like he was having fun. Sirius got bored of just watching the kid color after a few minutes, resting the book on his own tray table and reaching for a crayon out of the box. They colored together in silence for a while, Sirius actually getting so distracted by what he was doing that he didn't notice the flight attendants coming by with dinner until they stopped beside them. 

"Sir? Would you like chicken or beef?" Sirius looked up at the flight attendant, mildly startled that he hadn't noticed her until now. 

"Uh… neither, thanks," he said, grinning sheepishly. 

"And for your son and your… um…?" She motioned awkwardly at the sleeping man sitting by the aisle. Sirius' eyes went wide, more alarmed that she thought that Teddy was his son than by anything else. Teddy only giggled, reaching for his father's arm to shake him awake. The man jumped in his seat, looking down at his son and then over at the flight attendant, reaching up to rub his eyes.

"Sir, would you like chicken or beef?" the flight attendant asked kindly, smiling as Teddy gently patted his father's arm. 

"Uh… beef, please."

"And for your son?"

"Beef!" Teddy said, lifting the armrest that separated him and his father as he tried to snuggle up against him without unbuckling his seat belt. His father smiled at him, wrapping his arm around him as he leaned down to plant a kiss on top of his head. He seemed to have temporarily forgotten his fear of flying, or at least he was trying to hide it for his son. While he was distracted, Sirius tried to collect the crayons and stick them back in their box so that the flight attendant could serve Teddy's meal. 

"Where did you get crayons, love?" The man asked, frowning slightly as he watched Sirius tidying up. Teddy was busy unwrapping the crackers that had come on the tray, dropping both of them onto his lap when he finally managed to rip the package open.

"From Sirius! We watched movies and then we colored together," he said happily, turning to beam at his father. His father's eyes widened in horror, making Teddy shrink back against the seat. Sirius put the crayons back down on his tray, doing his very best not to look at Teddy or his father. He didn't even want to move around too much, so he sat still while they ate quietly.

Teddy didn't seem to notice that his father and Sirius were desperately trying to avoid eye contact with each other. When the flight attendant took his tray, he took off his seat belt to lie down across the seats, resting his head on his father's lap and his feet on Sirius' lap.

"Teddy, no! You can't just put your feet on people like that," his father said quietly, trying to shift his son closer. Teddy fussed a little as he dozed off, trying to swat his father's hands away. 

"It's all right. Let him sleep." Sirius finally looked up at the man, smiling weakly as he gently patted Teddy's feet. Teddy's father looked exhausted as he tried make Teddy comfortable, tucking his pillow under Teddy's head and using Teddy's to fill the gap between the seats, before attempting to smile at Sirius. 

"He must have been pestering you all day. I'm so sorry. He knows he's not supposed to bother-"

"It's okay, I swear. He reminds me a lot of my godson." Sirius pulled out his phone to show off a picture of Harry, sitting on the kitchen floor and making a mess with his fingerpaints. 

The man laughed softly as he looked at the picture Sirius was holding up for him, taking the phone so he could look closer without disturbing his son. "He's cute."

"He's a handful, but he is very cute when he wants to be. His name is Harry and his mother was furious that I let him do that." Sirius grinned, reaching over to swipe to the next picture, one of Lily holding Harry up by his armpits at arm's length, making a face while her son laughed. 

His seatmate bit his lip to keep from laughing harder at that, handing the phone back. "Well, I'm sure that whatever she did to you afterwards, you completely deserved."

"I really did," Sirius said, closing his eyes as he nodded slowly. "So what's your name?"

"Remus. And you're Sirius?" Sirius' eyes flew open, going wide for a moment before realizing that Teddy must have said his name before when he was only half paying attention. 

"Right. Yeah, no, I mean yes." Remus looked like he was on the verge of laughing again as Sirius got flustered. Sirius wrinkled his nose at him and crossed his eyes, hoping to make Remus laugh, grinning widely when he finally did. "So where are you and young Teddy here off to, Remus?"

"Nowhere exciting, I'm afraid. We're off to visit his gran." Remus smiled down at the sleeping boy on his lap, gently running his fingers through his son's hair. 

"Well, I bet your mum will be happy to see the both of you." Sirius didn't quite understand enjoying the company of one's family, but Remus seemed the type to care a lot about things like being with his family for the holidays. 

"Oh, it's not my mum," Remus said quietly, reaching over to pick some fuzz off of Teddy's sweater. "But I imagine she'll be pleased to see him, even if I'm not her favorite person. She hasn't had a chance to see him since she moved two years ago."

"And Teddy's mum?" 

"With her mum, I suppose. For now, anyway. She travels a lot for work, so we decided that Teddy would live with me, but she comes to visit when she can. And if we've been invited for Christmas, she's probably going to be there as well." Sirius studied Remus' face as he talked, wondering if Remus realized what he was saying. He was sort of staring at his son's face, but his eyes weren't really focused on anything. 

"Is she your wife?"

"Not anymore," Remus said quietly. He fell silent for a moment, staring blankly at Teddy, before blinking and lifting his head up to face Sirius, looking mildly embarrassed. "What about you? Are you going to have a grand adventure?"

"If you think visiting the bossiest woman on the planet an adventure, then yes, I'm going to have a marvelous adventure." Sirius laughed a bit, leaning back in his seat. "My cousin has decided to gather the family strays for the holidays. I'll be impressed if she managed to get my brother to come too." 

Remus smiled at Sirius, relaxing back against his own seat, looking slightly less embarrassed about oversharing. "Why would that be impressive?"

"My brother lives in France. My parents are awful people and my brother spent most of his school days defending them. He doesn't do that anymore, but he doesn't like to fight with them, so he went to uni in France and just… sort of stayed there. I haven't seen him since he was 18." Sirius wrinkled his nose as he remembered that he hadn't seen his brother in years. Regulus emailed him every now and then, and Sirius knew how much effort it had taken for his brother to distance himself from their parents, but he couldn't help but be disappointed that Reg had distanced himself from him as well. He looked up when he felt a hand on his shoulder.

"I hope he comes to see you and your cousin this year." Remus was smiling at him, looking at him like they'd been friends for years. Sirius wasn't really used to anyone but James and Lily caring about him or his dumb problems, so it was sort odd to have someone who was basically a stranger comforting him, but it was very sweet. Sirius started to nod, but jerked his head up as the lights went out. He could heard Remus laughing quietly, probably at him being so jumpy, so he turned to grin at him. 

"I think that means they want us to stop talking and hurry up and go to sleep," Sirius whispered, leaning over Teddy to gently nudge Remus with his elbow, making Remus laugh a little harder. 

"I guess," Remus whispered back, doing his best to stop laughing. He sighed, looking back down at his son. "Thank you for being so patient with Teddy, Sirius. Most people wouldn't bother." 

"Aww, how could anyone be mean to Teddy? He's a good kid." Sirius was kind of glad that he'd had company (sort of) during the long, boring flight, despite his dislike of other people's kids. And if Teddy hadn't talked to him, Remus probably wouldn't have talked to him either, and he would have had to spend the entire flight in awkward, cramped silence. Remus looked like he was on the verge of dozing off again, so Sirius offered him his pillow, smiling as Remus took it and mouthed thank you. They both did their best to get as comfortable as they could without moving and disturbing Teddy, before dozing off within minutes of each other.

By the time Sirius woke up, the plane had almost arrived. The flight attendants were passing out the necessary forms and little pencils for the passengers, and passing around coffee and sandwiches for breakfast. Remus had woken up, but Teddy was still asleep, so Remus was trying to fill out his forms on the flat surface of the aisle armrest. Sirius didn't want to wake Teddy, so he turned to fill out his forms against the flat surface of the window. It took a while for Remus to notice what he was doing, and when he finally did see Sirius writing up against the window, he laughed quietly and motioned for him to take the tray out and write normally. Sirius shook his head, flapping his hands towards Remus' makeshift writing space on the armrest and Teddy sleeping between them. Remus shook his head at Sirius, chewing on his lip to stay quiet. 

The flight attendants came by a short while later to inform them that Teddy had to be buckled up and sitting properly, for safety reasons. Sirius was still a little thrown by the assumption that he had any say over what went on with Teddy, but he helped Remus buckle Teddy's seat belt and get him sitting up without waking the kid. 

Sirius wasn't sure if kids normally slept like this, but Teddy didn't even wake up when they'd finally landed and were getting ready to get off the plane. It wasn't until Remus had picked him up that he really opened his eyes.

"Is Sirius coming with us, daddy?" Teddy asked, rubbing his face on his father's shoulder as he looked back at Sirius waiting behind them.

"No, love, Sirius has his own adventure waiting for him." Remus said, gently stroking his son's hair. When they finally got off the plane, he and Teddy waved goodbye to Sirius as they headed off to baggage claim. Sirius hated travelling with suitcases, so he'd only brought a duffel bag and his rucksack with him onto the plane. His cousin, Andromeda, was waiting for him at the international arrivals gate, looking the same as ever as she pulled him into a hug. 

"I can't believe you only brought that one bag for a two week stay. You're so unprepared for everything," she scolded, reaching up to brush her fingers through his hair to tidy it up a little. He let his cousin fuss over him a bit more, until they heard a tiny, very excited voice.

"Gran!" Teddy Lupin came running from the gate, throwing his arms around Andromeda's legs as he sat down on her feet. She laughed, reaching down to scoop the little boy up into her arms.

"Sirius, this is my grandson, Dora's boy. His name is Teddy," she said, holding him out to shake Sirius' hand. 

"We've met." Sirius couldn't ' believe it! Teddy didn't look anything like his mother, if Dora was really his mum. And why would Andy lie? As if to confirm what he'd been told, Remus Lupin came out from the gate, pushing a trolley with two suitcases, freezing when he saw Sirius with his son and his ex-mother in law. Andromeda looked between them, confused about why they both looked so alarmed. "We sat together on the plane." 

Andromeda shook her head, aiming a light kick at her cousin. "Well if that's all, you're being silly. You would have met anyways later tonight. Come on, Reg is already at the house." She carried Teddy towards the doors, peppering little kisses all over her grandson's face, not bothering to check if Sirius and Remus were following. Sirius grinned awkwardly as Remus chuckled softly, falling into step with each other as they followed Andromeda out to her car.

**Author's Note:**

> HAPPY NEW YEARS (ﾉ◕ヮ◕)ﾉ*:･ﾟ'✿,｡*:❀


End file.
